LINDSEY BURNS has reached the pinnacle of women's rugby with international selection. But NEIL BRAMWELL discovers that recognition does not match the demands...

LINDSEY Burns is not just a pretty face.

And in the eye-gouging, ear-nibbling, nose-fracturing world of international women's rugby, the fact that her face is still recognisable is a small miracle.

Their scrummage skirmishes would make the cauliflower-eared, beer-bellied, toothless prop forward hire a minder.

In the heat of a particularly heated battle a colleague's pierced nipple was....you really don't want to know!

Lindsey, however, enjoys the relative serenity of the Scotland wing.

And in that 'safety zone' she has broken her nose four times and spent last season out of the international limelight with cartilage trouble.

"We play as hard as we can and there are big hits," said the self-confessed tomboy.

"But you have to remember we are playing women against women and we don't have the physique of men.

"A lot of people are shocked by the physical side of it.

"It is hard - you get hit by some big girls - that's why I play on the wing and I don't really have the build for the scrum."

This is true. First impressions point to a Miss Jean Brodie than a Willie John McBride.

But Lindsey, whose parents live in Pleasington, has natural speed and was drafted into the national side from the Scottish Universities team for the World Cup, held in Scotland two years ago.

As a wee, raw 19-year-old, her debut was made in front of 5,000 people against England.

She still has nightmares about the incident pictured above, when she was through for a try, only for a last ditch tackle to jolt the ball out of her hands.

By the end of the tournament strange Australian men were approaching her in pubs for an autograph. That experience, though, had transformed her attitude about rugby.

From a novel excuse for a good night out with the girls at university, the sport had taken a grip.

"I got possessed. At the start of the England game I stood for quite a few seconds thinking 'Wow! Check this out.

"It was just immense and I wanted that feeling again."

Lindsey had made huge sacrifices to break into the national side - at a cost

"I gave up drinking to get fitter and with that gave up some of my social life.

"It got to the point when friends wouldn't ask me to go down to the pub.

"Now I regret that. When I was injured I realised rugby wasn't there to support me when I needed it.

"It sort of let me down and I felt I had nothing. This year I am trying to find a happy medium - socialising but still committed to training really hard," Lindsey admitted.

Her long injury lay-off, after having a cyst removed from her knee, also focused other frustrations common to sportswomen away from the glamorous worlds of top flight tennis or golf.

The follow-up care after her op was poor and she subsequently ruptured internal stitching in the knee.

"If any male player had been injured they would have been backed by the Scottish Football Union.

"I went back to the surgeon and his attitude was 'For goodness sake, little girl. I've trimmed your cartilage and you should know what that means'.

"I am bitter, yes. We are just as committed and train just as hard but we do not get the recognition our sport deserves.

"A lot of people who haven't seen a game of women's rugby say women can't play rugby.

"But if they come down and watch a match they realise we do have a certain level of skill and we do take it seriously.

"They come away thinking 'This is actually quite good fun to watch."

That commitment stretches to forking out of her own pocket for tours abroad.

And the notorious social side of the game on those tours can also cost a pretty penny.

Lindsey, though, knows where to draw the line. She once refused to drink a pint of lager which had been spiked with whiskey.

The fact that it was served in a muddy rugby boot was not the issue!

An honourable "What goes on on tour, stays on tour" was her only elaboration.

Such camaraderie might have to take a back seat during the summer, as Lindsey undergoes a weights programme to increase upper body strength, as well as working with a sprint coach.

Longer term plans involve travelling in the USA, where women's rugby is much more developed, before hoping to pursue a career in the police.

The development of the sport in Great Britain, while behind countries such as the USA, Canada and New Zealand, is improving.

Male coaches are not now attracted to the sport with ulterior motives.

And that is not a reflection of the widely perceived sexual tendencies of team sportswomen.

Sure, there are lesbians who play women's rugby, but there are probably also lesbian flower arrangers.

The one gay player in her Edinburgh Wanderers club ranks - admittedly a rare quota - is treated as just one of the girls.

It remains, though, a stigma but one which Lindsey Burns effortlessly dispels.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.